ASUS Vivobook Pro 15 OLED Laptop, 15.6” 2.8K OLED Display, AMD Ryzen 7 6800H Mobile CPU, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti GPU, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Windows 11 Home, Quiet Blue, M6500RE-EB74

OK so THE feature of this laptop is the screen. It is like having a huge cell phone screen. I have owned now for around a month, and still am just amazed at the screen quality. I have downloaded around 100 high resolution background photos and have these as my rotating desktop background. Regularly, when I log on, I am in awe of the image quality.Besides that, it is nice and snappy, and it is my desktop replacement. I use Mathematica software for my calculations and figures, its fast. Asus has a bunch of similar models, this one has a 1 TB SSD, nice webcam, and upgraded discrete video. I really like that I can choose between power (discrete GPU) and energy savings (integrated GPU). I am no avid gamer, however works great on Fortnite with high GPS.I have been an ASUS motherboard fan for many years, and so far the quality of this laptop matches my previous experiences. GL and enjoy!

Note: This review is of the M6500RE-EB74. When I originally added this review, the Amazon product page only contained this model. Since then, more Vivobook notebook models have been added and then removed. Make sure you filter the reviews by the specific model you are interested in.This Vivobook M6500RE-EB74 is marketed toward content creators. However, it has a lot to offer to anyone wanting a solid laptop with a brilliant Samsung OLED display, some gaming pretentions, and good battery life. It has its share of quirks, but nothing that really undermines its capability. The new AMD Ryzen Zen 3+ CPUs with improved iGPU and DDR5 memory are a notable step better than last year's Zen 3 with DDR4. This Vivobook also has a dedicated NVIDIA RTX 3050Ti GPU for moderate gaming performance and photo/video editing. If that's all you need to know, then you can avoid reading the long rambling below. If you want to get into more detail, then read on.I was looking for a laptop with (in more or less priority order):1. Good battery life2. Bright display3. Some gaming performance and therefore a reasonably fast processor and graphics.4. Compact size and light weight.I chose this AMD processor Vivobook because AMD is known to have far superior battery life over their Intel equivalents. In some expert reviews, the battery life was almost double for AMD. Performance might be lower with AMD as Intel has made great strides with the 13th gen, but I was willing to give up a little in the performance department for the extra time unplugged.It came down in the end to the AMD powered Asus Vivobook M6400 (14 inch) and this M6500 (15.6 inch). I actually ordered the 14-inch M6400 first, but it was out of stock and had no promised date. Its advantage was size and weight while this M6500 has a more powerful Nvidia GPU (RTX 3050Ti vs RTX3050) and higher refresh rate (120hz vs 90hz). The Ultrabook I was replacing is an Asus Zenbook 14 inch (UM425IA) from 2020 and I also looked at getting another Zenbook. However, I couldn't find a Zenbook that ticked all of the boxes like this Vivobook at a good price.If you are also looking at the very similar M6500RC-DB71 on Amazon, the three differences I see between this "RE" and the "RC" are:SSD: RC version 512TB M.2 PCIe gen 3. This RE has 1TB M.2 PCIe gen 4.Camera: RC has 720p camera. This RE has 1080p camera.GPU: RC has NVIDIA RTX 3050. This RE has 3050TiAll other specs appear to be identical.What I like:Stunning Samsung sourced OLED 2.8k display with 120hz refresh rateAbility to charge with either the dedicated charger or a USB-C charger.HDMI 2.0 outputGood battery life at 60hz refresh rate.Headphone jack.Built-in camera privacy shutterGreat fingerprint reader for Windows HelloKeyboard has good typing feel.Decent sound quality from speakers.Fast charging and ability to limit charge to preserve battery long term health.What I don't love:No dedicated Home and End keys.Keypad layout and size are poorly thought out.Micro SD card slot rather than a full SD card slot.Two USB 2.0 type A slots. Can't understand why any modern computer would have USB 2.0.All useful ports on the right side and could use another 3.2 Gen 2.Windows Hello does not work with camera.Battery life significantly shorter if used at full 120hz refresh.Windows 11 Home rather than Pro.No built in ethernet port You have to purchase a dongle to use wired ethernet connection.You can tell it's a lower tier laptop than the Zenbook series.Screen is highly reflective in bright office lighting.No power on light on keyboard (surprisingly annoying)I won't dwell too much on the Samsung OLED display as every review since the OLED panels have been widely available tells you that they are excellent. The ones in this Asus Vivobook series are calibrated and Pantone certified, so colors should be accurate for any editing you might do. You can definitely tell the difference when used at 120hz; actually, there are two notable differences. First, the display is noticeably smoother in everything compared to 60hz. Second, battery life is cut significantly if used at the higher refresh rate. I can't tell exactly how much less time on battery just yet, but I'd guess at least 25% less battery using 120hz.Before moving on from the display, I'll mention that this is almost like having two laptops in one. The same can be said for almost any notebook with a dedicated GPU, but it's worth expanding on here with the refresh rate situation. On AC power, you can game or edit photos and video at 120hz using the 3050Ti dedicated GPU and it works great. If you tried that same thing on battery, you'd not be as happy with either the performance or the short amount of time the battery would give you. As said, this is not unique to this notebook except for the refresh rate option. What I wish is that when plugged in the notebook would automatically go to 120hz and when on battery it would use 60hz. Changing the refresh is not necessarily difficult, but it would an automatic setting would be nice.UPDATE: I was able to find an easy process to set up in Windows Scheduler for free to automatically switch between 60hz on battery and 120hz while plugged in.In terms of power and battery life, Asus has done a good job here. Charging is very fast and the MyAsus app allows you to limit charging to 80% to preserve the health of the battery. Charged at 80% and used for a combination of surfing, spreadsheets, and watching videos, I've gotten 8+ hours easily using the 60hz refresh (and AMD iGPU) and that's without battery saver turned on. My testing is not scientific, but I am pretty confident it's representative. My only complaint is that the remaining time on battery estimate jumps around constantly. The charging brick that comes with the Vivobook is large. However, the great thing about this latest generation USB C 4.0 port is that it allows charging there, too. So, if you are traveling, you can charge with the same compact brick you use for your phones and tablets. This charge port was one of my deciding factors in choosing this 6000 series over the previous gen which did not have USB C charging.Update: If you plan on charging with USB-C, and especially if you take advantage of the 120hz refresh rate, you will need a USB C charger capable of 60 watts or more to charge while the notebook is powered on. if you use a USB-C charger with less than 60W capability, you may slowly lose charge while using the notebook. The charger supplied with the notebook is a 150W barrel (round tipped) charger.The keyboard for typing is as good as any I've used with well-done backlighting and great feel. The number keypad though is, well, not very useful. The 14-inch version of this Vivobook series has no hard keypad and uses the trackpad as a virtual numberpad. My 14 inch Zenbook had this virtual keypad and for the times I needed it, it worked great. While it's nice having the hard keypad, I liked the other keyboard layout better as the keyboard itself was easier to use. I especially liked having dedicated home, end, and page buttons in the 14 inch which this 15 inch layout lacks. I'd say that the keypad layout and the missing dedicated navigation keys are probably my biggest dislikes using the notebook. Photo included in this review shows the Vivobook (left) and my Zenbook 14-inch (right). Note the dedicated Home, End, and page up/down keys on the 14 as well as the larger enter and backspace. Also note the bizarre placement of the +, -, 0, and keypad Enter keys on the Vivobook 15 pad. Not sure I'll ever get used to using that keypad.Update: I was wrong. I've gotten used to the keypad. I still don't love it, but I no longer hate it.Another consideration in terms of design/layout is that the right side of the notebook contains all of the ports (except the two dubious USB 2.0 ports). This means if you are using a mouse with this Vivobook and are right-handed, anything you plug into the notebook could potentially be in the way of your mouse movement. This port layout is common to (I think) all of the Vivobooks for the last few years. It's not a problem for me, but if I was setting up in an office with a mouse and had to plug into the HDMI or USB ports, it could be an aggravation.I mentioned in my "wants" section at the top that I was looking for a compact and light notebook. If you look at size and weight numbers, you might be inclined to think you'd hardly notice the difference between an Asus 14 inch Zenbook/Vivobook and this 15.6 inch Vivobook, but in practice the size and weight differences are significant. If I had to buy again tomorrow, I'd likely pick the 14 inch Vivobook M6400 just because of size, keyboard layout, and I do think the 16:10 aspect ratio does offer some benefit. All of my other likes and dislikes would be exactly the same if I had the M6400.I hesitate to talk specifics when it comes to gaming performance, but I will say that I was able to play Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p full screen, mostly high settings, and raytracing and dlss “on” at 40fps steady. Not bad. Running Cinebench R23 and 3DMark Time Spy, results were less impressive than I expected. I've tried playing with resolution and refresh rate, but it seems to make little difference with 3DMark. Even more interesting is that I've run benchmarks with the AMD Radeon 680M iGPU instead of the NVIDIA GPU and the iGPU is less than 10% behind the dedicated graphics. Knowing what I know now, I might be tempted to skip the 3050Ti (i.e. rely on the iGPU) if another notebook without the dedicated graphics was cheaper or had other desirable features.The built-in webcam is interesting. Unlike my Zenbook, the camera system does not have an infrared lens and so Windows Hello does not work with the camera (the fingerprint reader is great, though). The Vivobook camera system itself is excellent. It is a 1080p camera with great low light performance and the microphone hardware and Asus software are great. On top of this, because the notebook has an Nvidia discrete graphics card, you can use the Nvidia Broadcast app as well. This app gives you further video and audio enhancement and also the ability to project backgrounds without the need for a solid wall or green screen. You could be sitting in a busy airport with people streaming by behind you and it would look like you were in your den...or on the moon...or in a desert. It's very cool stuff.Most of the other things mentioned in my likes and dislikes are pretty self-explanatory and I won't bloat this review further expounding on them. However, if you are comparing this notebook to the previous OLED Vivobooks like it (e.g., the M3500 with Ryzen 7 5800H), be aware of the differences before deciding. I opted to pay more for this latest gen because of the USB charging, better HDMI, better camera, slightly better battery life, and slightly better gaming performance. If those things are not on your list of requirements, then you may be happy spending less on an immediate past gen like the M3500. I also realize that HP, Dell, and Lenovo offer similar laptops and I've used Dell and Lenovos at work without complaint. However, I've been buying Asus products (motherboards, laptops, tablets, routers, etc.) for years and just like their approach to design. The one suggestion I'd offer is decide on the specs you want, and then go brand/price shopping. If you are buying your laptop in late 2022 (like I did) when this model was "new" you will likely not see any discounts while prior year models will likely be better bargains.You may be asking why I'm replacing my two year old notebook. I am replacing my 2020 Zenbook with this Vivobook because the Zenbook had a fatal hardware failure after a hard drop. What actually failed was the M.2 SSD connector/controller. Basically, the SSD was fine, but the computer would no longer recognize it and there is only one drive connector. To make these powerful laptops smaller, lighter, and more affordable, everything is soldered to the motherboard and there is only one drive slot. To replace the SSD connector means essentially replacing the motherboard, CPU, graphics, and memory, too. The cost for me to fix my Zenbook was within $50 of what I paid for it new. I was gutted that one component could make a perfectly good (otherwise) notebook a lightweight boat anchor. It is for this reason that I decided to get an extended warranty on this Vivobook (Asus standard US warranty is 1 year). I normally believe that extended warranties are money down the drain, but with the potential for any out of warranty failure to make it impractical to repair, I went ahead with it.While most people will likely not be comparing a two-year-old 14 inch Asus Zenbook with this 15.6 inch Vivobook like I did, I can't help mentioning a few things here. The Zenbook is sleeker and it has a higher end presentation with its all aluminum chassis. The Vivobook does not feel cheap by any means, but it's clearly a lower tier series. With that said, the Zenbook equivalent spec to this Vivobook is significantly more expensive and nothing about it, to me, justifies the difference. Just like you can get equivalent cars from Lexus (Zenbook) and Toyota (Vivobook), the Zenbook is going to be "nicer" and cost more. Equipped to be as equivalent as possible, they won't be that different to use daily.Only had this laptop for a short time and will update the review as I spend more time with it. For now, I think it was a good choice for me.Update January 2023: Have used the Vivobook M6500RE for four months now 8+ hours per day. So far, have had no notable issues. Battery life is excellent with appropriate settings. Performance is good as well. Most annoying thing is the lack of a power light on the keyboard and a few times the backlit keyboard decided to turn off (can turn it right back on). The metal lid is amazing at NOT showing fingerprints.Update September 2023: So, after 11 months of heavy heavy use, have noted a few things. First, the trackpad and keyboard keys are showing some wear/shine. Nothing effecting performance, but still noteworthy. Bought a cheap trackpad protector (ASIN: B0BSLPKX98) and that seems to be working fine there. The only other issue, and this one more serious, is that the Mediatek Bluetooth/Wifi 6E card has failed. Of all of the things to fail, this is probably the least expensive and easiest to fix, but still an agravation. I did not submit this for warranty because a new card is only about $25 and I did not want to be without my computer for somehing so simple and cheap to fix. Otherwise, this notebook is working fine. Screen is still amazing and other performance remains good.

I WOULD GIVE THIS A (-1) START IF I COULD! PLEASE STAY FAR AWAY from purchasing this laptop from Amazon!!! Day 3 of owning this laptop, I was adding items to my Pinterest board when the screen went black and then came back on stuck on UEFI BIOS Utility screen. Spent 2hrs on the phone with Asus Tech Support trying to get out of this UEFI screen and couldn't (no help, except instructed to send back to Amazon). Then I spent another 1hr on calls with Amazon explaining to them the problem and now I have to wait for UPS to pick it up, return to Amazon, wait another 2 - 3 weeks for a refund to purchase another laptop. THIS LAPTOP IS NOT WORTH THE HEADACHE!!!!

Amazing

Beautiful screen. The laptop doesn’t get too hot.

I bought this versatile laptop for college that doubles as a gaming pc.

Love the screen, and overall performance is ok. I assumed (incorrectly) that some of the parts would be upgradeable, either RAM or storage, but I don't believe either are, so just be warned on that. I came from a Dell XPS 15 where I could change out both of those things, so a bit disappointed there. What you see is what you get, in terms of hardware.I use it for work, and a bit of gaming, mostly older strategy games, so nothing super graphically-intense. It handles most things just fine. RAM seems like a bit of a bottleneck.

Excellent in every way except for intermittently, for a few seconds once or twice a day, a crackling sound which is either in the fan or the system. This seems minor at this point and does not interfere with editing photos on the beautiful screen or enjoying excellent sound on YouTube music.